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Originally Posted by Mark McLeod
It's eminently doable if you have the assistance of the school's IT people, since routers can be purposely set to disallow some types of wireless connections or traffic.
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I know that the public schools around here all have very strict network policies. Even the wireless access points usually will not allow for communication between the wireless nodes. (Often the LAN segments are limited to the room, so nodes may only access other nodes inside the room.) This would severely limit the connection between devices.
If your private school is much more cooperative, I agree that with their help it is definitely possible. I just want to mention that the cRIO and the FRC framework can consume a large amount of bandwidth when running, and is very sensitive to latency problems. Even if you can get it connected, you may impact others on the network. If the network becomes saturated, the connection to the cRIO is often the first to die.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark McLeod
Is this so you can remotely drive the robot all over the school without leaving your room?
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For our demonstrations and testing, I often mount the router directly on the robot. In an attempt to be as close to the framework as possible, the router is still only wireless connected to the bridge, which is still wired to the cRIO. (Even if they are only a few inches apart.) I power the router from the power distribution board. This allows me to control the robot from anywhere within wireless range of the robot, as long as I have my laptop with me. (Sometimes in my laptop bag while holding the USB controller, so I drive and not carry the robot a few hundred meters.)